Face difficulty getting your PC to start after adding a new NVMe storage device.
Face difficulty getting your PC to start after adding a new NVMe storage device.
Hi, I recently upgraded my old MSI motherboard to a MSI B550 Tomahawk. It had two M.2 drives and four SATA SSDs before. I faced issues recognizing a second M.2 slot because it was a SATA device, not NVMe. After removing everything, the system worked fine. Later, I installed a Crucial T500 1 TB drive into that slot, checked compatibility, and installed it. Now my computer won’t boot at all—it jumps straight into BIOS. I tried booting from the drive again, but it reported no OS detected, even though I know I have one. I didn’t set up the drives initially (someone else did), so I had to remap them. I’m 99% sure the correct drive is where my OS should be. I’m considering reinstalling the OS but can’t choose the boot location. Please help me understand what’s going on!
When dealing with numerous drives, it’s important to note which SATA ports might be affected when using M.2 slots. Just follow the instructions. Regarding CSM/UEFI, I don’t know your system’s age. CSM supports most Linux distributions and older Windows versions, also known as Legacy. It allows booting from an MBR formatted drive, depending on the setup. Some systems can even use a GPT-formatted drive starting from Vista. When installing Windows 11 via the installer USB, make sure you choose the correct UEFI boot media and that UEFI is enabled. The drive should be either GPT-formatted or blank. For a smooth installation, ensure everything is configured properly. If you face booting problems, it could be due to the boot record being on a disabled partition after mounting an M.2 drive. This often happens with separate partitions during installation. Unless your system only has one active drive at install time, this setup is recommended.
The system is configured for UEFI since I'm using Windows 11. I verified that my SATA ports remain active when switching to an M.2 port, only the extra PCIe slots are impacted. It correctly identifies both SATA and M.2 drives. I think reinstalling Windows might help. I'll take a break and try again soon—thanks for your help!
The BIOS isn't displaying well, but the UEFI is visible since it's configured that way.
When pressing F12 before the BIOS finishes loading, you get a boot menu. Can you check which drive is installed? Try picking one. Windows behaves similarly to Linux and requires a fixed device name, like SATA1 or SATA2. Sometimes adding a new drive changes the naming order, making it unclear where to begin.